Bikeability Scotland: Leadhills Primary School

I’m Anne French headteacher Leadhills Primary. I've been headteacher at Leadhills now for 12 years.

We are the highest school in Scotland, or one of the highest schools in Scotland. That’s the claim to fame. It's a lovely rural school. It's on the border of South Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway.

Very community based. We have good partner links with lots of the local community groups. A lot of history within the village of Leadhills and Wanlockhead. For example, the Miners’ Library is situated next door to the school and it's one of the oldest lending libraries in the country, if not the world. Built on mining, a mining industry which is now obviously depleted, but over at Wanlockhead there is the Mining Museum, and that's just recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, which the school and the kids have been heavily involved in.

We very much put ourselves at the heart of the village. Without the school and without the next generation coming through. You don't want village life to die.

Currently we have 17 children. Numbers were more but COVID has hit in a slightly different way. There's lots of transient families and Airbnb second homes from COVID, but things go in cycles. I'm hopeful that there's movement within the village. There’s houses up for sale. Hopefully that will encourage some families to come, and the numbers increase. We might be a small school, but we punch our weight.

When I first came there wasn't a lot of Bikeability. Over the years we've touched on it in cycles. I'm Bikeabilty trained and I've led it. I’ve led it in conjunction with one of the parents at the time. Because we're a small school, we need to look outwards and involve the community more and help provide these opportunities for the children.

Knowing the village and knowing the children there was a lot of need. One, to keep them safe on the road outside because it is a main road, and two, the children were looking to do Wheelie Friday - they had that before COVID. They were looking for Wheelie Friday, they were looking to bring their bikes in and be able to cycle to school.

To do that they need to have the knowledge. Last year will looked at equity for all and through PEF (Pupil Equity Funding) and sustainability funding we looked at how we could actually do that across the whole school. We managed to secure funding for storage for the bikes and then we were looking to source bikes for everybody. Children grow very quickly and there's all that recycling and sustainability that you can pass on, upcycle, etc.

We also knew that there were children who couldn't ride their bikes. For all we were saying, it was Bikeability and we've got two members of staff through training, we were very conscious it was more about bike confidence for a lot of them, and actually being able to ride the bike, which a lot of them hadn’t.

We built the foundations. We managed to get in touch with Healthy Valleys, which is a local charity over at Rigside. They had a Gear Up scheme. They were employing two people specifically for cycling and bike maintenance. We got in touch with them and managed to source a trike for one of our pupils who wasn't secure on a two-wheeled bike.

The joy in his face at being included with everybody else. Knowing that he was going to be able to participate in the Bikeability sessions, same as everybody else, was amazing. And he actually went from September last year on the three-wheeled trike to a two-wheeled bike in May, June.

It's a lovely setting, it's a rural setting, and children should be outside enjoying it. It's given them a confidence. A lot of them lack self-confidence. A younger child who couldn't ride the bike - but because we had that opportunity - staff were able to work with them, increase that bike confidence and by May, June, they could actually ride a bike. And the joy in his face. That's what you do for.

It's not all about academic success and I think that's the biggest thing. It's knowing that is something that they've done and they've managed. Yes, we’ve facilitated it, but at the end of the day, they've done it, they've achieved it.

I'm really, really surprised. That A, we were nominated, and B, it's a great achievement to win. That's not what we do it for. It's for the children, to provide them with the same opportunities as everybody else and make sure that they have a whole experience.

It has to be a partnership and a team effort because we are a small school. It takes time to build the relationships. [You have to] get yourself out there in the village and be known. Don't be afraid to ask - which takes me out of my comfort zone. But knowing a couple of people within the village that are prominent and gradually knowing the context of the school, knowing what groups are out there. It’s knowing who to contact and not being afraid to say, “Can you help us?” And nine times out of ten, folk can and will.

I’m Patricia Slater and I am the acting principal teacher here at Leadhills Primary School. I've got a real passion for ensuring that children are safe on the roads and that the children have got the skills after primary school so that they can continue [cycling].

There are not a lot of pavements. The children haven’t got a lot of experience of riding their bikes on the pavements. They've just been used to country tracks or they’ve not ridden at all before primary school.

One of the barriers we have to think about here is how we're going to train them. Where is safe enough to train them. Where are they going to cycle and what hazards will they meet on the road when they are out there on their own. We've got a high volume of cars passing through. We've got loads of motorbikes passing through. It's ensuring the children are aware of all these things that they might meet when they're on their bike on the road.

We probably have to do more of a risk assessment and consider lots more things in this rural community. Just making the community aware, because the roads are so small, that there is training going on. It’s about having the correct signs and [knowing] where to put them. Notifying the community that it is taking place so that they know to be going slow when coming through the village because the roads are not made for the children on their bike and cars because they are so old. It’s a lot to consider.

I went on training back in October. I did my level one and level two training. I brought it back to the school and I was so passionate about it. I had a discussion with our management team and staff at the time and decided how I was going to take it forward.

I reached out to the communities to see if there were any bikes that were not being used. I had such a wonderful response that I actually gathered a healthy number of bikes so we were able to then get Healthy Valleys in to do maintenance checks

With it being a small school and not [having] a lot of staff, you have to look at the curriculum and how you can fit this in and manage it. We had a rotation where some would go in the morning and some would go out in the afternoon.

Once we had a bike for every child and a helmet for every child we started level one training with all of our learners from P1 to P7. We then looked at who in the upper stages were ready for level two and we took that forward. And the younger learners reinforced the skills of level one because some of the learners who were doing level one again couldn't ride their bike in October, and now all of our learners can successfully ride a bike.

All those challenges we had to face have been worth it in the end. We now have confident riders in the school who look forward to taking on level two as they go through the school and look forward to riding on the roads in the village and beyond when they leave primary school.

There was one wee boy who couldn't ride his bike and I spent a lot of one-to-one time with him. And the day that he actually went away and I could let my hands go off the bike was one of the best days in teaching that I've ever had in the last seven years of my career.

Whenever I’m leaving [the school] at around 4 or 5 o’clock you do see them out riding and putting the skills into practice. There is a road to the right of the school that takes to a nice country path that they can go on with their bikes.  That's where I suggested to the younger learners to keep practicing on their bikes rather than go on the road, as they’ve not yet been trained in that.

Children, so often these days, are contained in their rooms with their iPads, PlayStations and Xboxes. They are actually outside exploring, going on their bikes or meeting their friends. No matter the weather it is just good to get outdoors and get some fresh air and that’s what our children do here and that’s amazing.

If the weather is torrential rain and high winds, it would probably get cancelled. But a little bit of rain is a good experience for them at the end of the day. It's good to get them used to that.

One thing we'd like to have in the future is a bike shed. So, when the children are bringing their bikes in there's a waterproof shelter for them because at the minute, we've not been able to do that and it's not great for the bike. To encourage the children to cycle to school. It doesn't have to be a day when they’ve got Bikeability.

I got an email from South Lanarkshire Council saying they were putting us forward for it. I didn't expect it. But it was a sense of achievement for myself because of going out and sourcing the bikes. They are recognising the work that we're doing with the children and what the children are getting from this experience.

To actually find out that we won was an amazing sense of achievement. It was a nice end to the summer holidays when I opened the email and saw that we had actually been successful and won the Scottish award.

We also talked to the children about their experiences of Bikeability Scotland training and how they felt about cycling in general. Listen to our interview with Rowan, Erica, Max and Brandon above.